A letter from Roland

Hello my friends,

I have been caught up in the U.S.’s social power struggle. Trump’s U.S. Capitol attack (likely induced by Putin), coming on the heels of the Georgia election that made Congress majority blue, is probably the most important U.S. political event of my life. Our democracy is under attack, by a puppet who acts in concordance with Putin’s wishes while lining his own pockets. We have been comparing it to JFK’s assassination and 9/11 (and others), but it seems to be in a class of its own.

It’s a big deal. You could argue that democracy is under attack in the world, not just here, because we are a role model for democracy, a showcase and fishbowl. I have seen stories like one of a Ukrainian farmer having a discussion with his journalist daughter. He spent excessive time on the mechanics of Biden’s November election victory, including demographic details in various swing states he will never see in his life, without giving even passing mention of a concurrent election in his own country.

Since Putin is likely the motivating soure for Trump’s actions last week, we are witnessing a global confrontation between the Russian dictator and American democracy. If my assessment is correct, that definitely makes this an international event. [Just in passing, I will also say that Julia is on the hunt for the source of QAnon, and she is suspicious that the source, and certainly the greatest support and encouragement, comes from Putin.]

My very small circle of personal friends has expanded slightly to include new people, people I do not know, due to my engagement on Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack page. A few enterprising souls have managed to find their way over here, my only footprint in the virtual reality dream world called “the internet.”

To the HCR subscribers who somehow managed to find me, Bravo! Welcome to Roland’s universe.

This site is the home of my science-fiction story project, a book-and-movie combo.

My project goes by various names, like Life: A Field Manual and more recently the Academy of Titans (aka the Academy of Great Souls). The name keeps changing. Luke Starkiller was the name for Mark Hamill’s character at least a month or two into filming, Skywalker came later, so even George Lucas had this problem of settling on a name.

This project is a story based on my world, my universe, how I see the world. It contains characters from all over the world, because the story is a metaphor for how the world actually operates. The story is an allegory for Planet Earth in our era, the 21st Century. We mark the passage of history from the time a team of old souls appeared together in Palestine, a team including both men and women.

I am a writer. I am a person who reflects. That’s what I enjoy doing the most, being by myself and writing and reflecting.

Teaching truck driving is not something I want to do anymore. I was feeling incredibly frustrated with myself, with my inability to engage in my calling, but now that frustration has disappeared. I have this project. My Story Project feels to me like an avenue, a channel, for my calling, my desire to teach.

I am feeling that desire in this moment: the desire to teach.

My Story Project is easily the best way to establish an outlet for that desire. Once the book is published, I have a forum, a following, subscribers, a fan base, fellow students, people who want to learn with me, people who want to learn from me.

That settles down a certain restive part of me, the frustrated teacher who missed his calling. All I want out of life is a published book, and a small, manageable forum to engage that readership, that audience.

That’s all I want out of life.

I already have everything else I want.

I am close to being completely happy with myself. I have never been more happy with myself, more at peace with myself, than in 2020 and 2021.

My life is coming together. My calling has appeared, and is beginning to crystallize.

When you are creating a story, you draw from your own knowledge and experience. Your knowledge base is more important than anything else, because wherever there is a vacuum, a lack of knowledge or a place of ignorance, you are unable to write and produce story material.

Having a father who is a die-hard conservative is proving valuable. It allows me to generate a character of that nature, because of course I want as many readers as possible to identify personally with the story, so they can find their place in it. [In this story project, that’s Tom Matthews.]

Having parents who grew up in WWII-era Germany is also proving valuable. That history is pivotal to the world history of the 1900s, so my deep German roots give me a perspective that is uncommon in America and very useful in understanding the development of societies during that century.

As a person brand new to fiction writing, I am beginning to appreciate all the rich gifts of experience, knowledge, and family heritage that were handed to me, because they help produce the fabric of the story.

I have always been an investigator of life-as-it-is, a student of life, a nonfiction writer. My Field Manual is a nonfiction work that has been in development probably my entire life. The Field Manual is my latest version of How Life Works, How Life Operates in This World and in This Human Body. It is a course of study in the mastery of life.

Now the Field Manual is relegated to being a prop in the story. A powerful prop, but a mere prop nonetheless. Roland’s entire knowledge base has been reduced to a prop. *chuckle*

Mastery of life in this world is no mean feat. It takes constant study and application. But the more I learn, the better I get at it, the better I feel about myself, and the more knowledge and power I bring to the story project.

My role models are the great masters, with a specialization in the western path, like Joshua of Nazareth and like Thoth, the ancient Egyptian who went by the name Arlich Vomalites. I am drawn to the master teachers of history. Those master teachers are the inspiration for the idea of an institution with the working name the Academy (of Titans, of Great Souls, etc.).

What I bring to the table, compared to other science fiction story-tellers, is my affinity for the joyful aspect of play. I believe in my heart of hearts that our primary purpose in being here is for play. Being serious is an unfortunate affliction of mine, an illness I contract from time to time due to circumstances of living in an imperfect world that provides great challenges. Play is why we are here, the rest is just a temporary and unfortunate diversion until we get back to play, which is the joy of being alive.

Love,

Roland